Urban Expositions recently announced its acquisition of the San Francisco Intl. Gift Fair (SFIGF) and the Seattle Gift Show from dmg world media. The ownership transition will take place following the August 2009 editions of the semi-annual shows.

The acquisition adds a strategic western region presence to Atlanta-based Urban Expositions' growing portfolio of trade shows. "We have been looking for growth opportunities in the Western U.S. for some time now and felt that the San Francisco and Seattle shows offered the perfect complement to our show roster," explains Doug Miller, President of Urban Expositions. "These shows now join our growing Las Vegas Souvenir Resort Gift Show and new LA editions of the Material World Technology Solutions textile shows to expand and strengthen our position out West. We look forward to building upon the outstanding efforts of dmg world media and GLM — the shows' current producer — to bring even more new business growth and development opportunities to the region's gift community."

"Urban Expositions is ideally suited to take over the management of the San Francisco and Seattle shows," says Alan Steel, Executive Vice President for Business-to-Retail at dmg world media, which sold its annual Boston Gift Show to Urban Expositions in 2008. "Urban's leadership has a strong understanding of the specialized needs of these events, their buyers and exhibitors, and we know they will bring continued success to the shows in years to come."

Urban Expositions will assume all management duties from dmg world media following completion of the Aug. 8-11 San Francisco and Aug. 22-25 Seattle events. At that time, the company will take over all sales, marketing, operations and other day-to-day duties for the Jan. 23-26 Seattle Gift Show and the Feb. 6-10 SFIGF in 2010, and all future editions of the two shows.